When Joe Biden and Donald Trump first debated in 2020, an estimated 73.1 million people watched the showdown, according to Nielsen Media. On Thursday night, the now-incumbent Biden and former POTUS Trump hit the stage together once again for the first of two presidential debates. So did the debate, which took place much earlier in the process than usual, catch as many eyes as last time?
Some early numbers from Samba TV indicate there may have been fewer viewers. According to their information, over 3.2 million people caught the debate on its host network CNN. In 2020, though, a reported 8.2 million people tuned in to watch on CNN, at a time when their anchors did not moderate (instead, it was Fox News’ Chris Wallace).
Here is a breakdown of their figures (“HHs” means households):
- Bloomberg: 17,541 HHs
- PBS: 37,759 HHs
- NewsNation: 382,429 HHs
- WGN-DT: 830,580 HHs
- Newsmax: 589,788 HHs
- CNN: 3,287,769 HHs
- CW: 172,409 HHs
Total Household Reach for all: 4,771,614 HHs
These figures do not include the other major broadcasters of the debate — ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, MSNBC, and others — but this could be an early indicator that perhaps there was less interest this time around.
The 2020 debate reached a reported 48.6 million households, which means the total 73.1 million-person viewership equates to an average of 1.5 people per household. At that figure, CNN’s per-person viewership based on Samba TV’s numbers would be around 4.95 million for the 2024 debate.
This page will be updated with further information once available.